Not to long ago I started the wonderfully scary, hard and at time uncomfortable process of searching for a new Church home. After 15 Plus years at one Church serving every Sunday and Wednesday and knowing what to expect out of Sunday Service and knowing, and being known, by everyone at the Church the day finally came when I felt like it was time to try something new, time for a fresh start, and new stage in my life. I had never, as an adult, left a Church and had never been left to search for a Church. So this has been a totally new experience for me. I have so far been enjoying it and have had a fun time looking for something new and for some where to become my new home.
So far I have visited only three Churches and there are things about each these Churches that I enjoyed and things about each that kind of put me off. There also were many things that these Churches did that were similar and many things that were different.
For starters none of these Churches had their own building. So they were left to meet in a school or a building of some kind. They also all had folding chairs to sit on rather that pews or anything like that. The other and most important thing that all of these Churches did, or better stated are, is that they are all Church ‘plants’. And I think this is the important part that I think needs to be zoomed in on and understood because this whole idea of Church ‘plants’ has become one of, if not the, major way that the Christian Church grows today and I have always wondered about the whole idea behind a Church ‘plant’, why does it work? What does it do better than a “planted” Church? Why has it become so “popular”? Why do we call them Church ‘plants’? And why is it that lots of Church ‘plants’ seem to be mostly younger people, well older people stay in there ‘home’ Church?
First I must say that the term ‘planting’ or ‘plant’ seems to be largely a Christian only thing. At least I can not think of any time when I have heard someone say “well I’m gonna go plant a new Car dealership.” or anything like that and so it seems like only Churches use this word to talk about something new and truth be told. as much as it is totally a Christian term, I really like the term and the imagery that “Church Plant” brings to my mind. Now I am by no means a person who keeps plants, I don’t know that I ever have kept a plant, but I know people who keep them and the coolest thing to me about plants is the fact that they need the most help and work at the very start when they are just planted but if you were to leave them after that to grow they quickly become unruly and start to do whatever they want (people who have plants do you agree?).
Now the reason why I think this is important to understand is because I feel like the strongest thing that a Church Plant has is the fact that it is new and fresh, much the same way that every year a farmer must start over with a new crop a Church Plant is something new and fresh that happens to the Church body, and that I believe is a very strong thing to have happen. I think that there are just times when something new should, and must, happen in the life of a Church other wise that Church will become unruly.
I also think that it is this newness and freshness that causes Church plants to often, not always but quite often, be mostly people from the younger age brackets, lets say 35 and younger, because the longer you stay in one place that harder it is to leave. Just think about how often it happens that someone grows up in the same place and all of there friends are in that one city and all they have ever known is the streets that the walk on everyday. Than they get married and have kids and they want to stay close to their parents so their kids will know their grand parents and so they never leave because they are to afraid to take that leap of faith and trust that God will carry them through to a new place in their lives. It is this same idea that works in Churches, I believe, the idea that the more comfortable you get in a Church the harder it is to leave a Church and the longer you have stayed there the more comfortable that place feels and it is this reason that makes Church Plants so often mostly younger aged people.
I must finish by saying that I think there are many different kinds and sizes of Churches inside the Body of Christ and that all Churches were at one time “Church Plants” and that we are still growing branches of the greater Body of Christ. I think that no matter if you sit in a folding chair or a pew on Sunday morning the most important thing is that you are worshiping the one true Savior Jesus. If that is true that nothing else matters!
(Please Comment and tell me what you think. Also if you have any questions, concerns or ideas about this post feel free to comment or contact me anyway you can. Thank you much.)
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